Councilwoman Filipa Roseta said that the abandonment of the work by the contractor "is a package that we are trying to unwrap". Odivelas waiting for Lisbon to define Pontinha's future.
Before "if you decide to have a [Popular] Fair or not to have a Fair"you have to close the "another chapter" of the future Carnide Urban Park. "When we got here, the work had been abandoned"explained Councillor Filipa Roseta at a public town hall meeting this Wednesday. "It's a package we're trying to unwrap."
"At the moment the work is at a standstill because the contractor has abandoned the work and says he wants to negotiate to get a higher price, because the value of the work is higher than what is in the contract"added Filipa Roseta. "We're trying to sort it out. We're talking to the contractor to see if we can close this somehow so that it's not completely ruinous for the council."
The installation of the new Feira Popular, with a new concept, was planned for a 20-hectare site in the parish of Carnide, where a large urban park would also be created. The Fair would be inside the Park, and through the concession of the Fair's space, the municipality would pay for the park's maintenance costs. The project was originally announced in 2015, but its completion (first the Park and then the Fair) has been delayed ever since. Only now is the Park nearing completion - despite the abandonment of the work; the Feira Popular never had a closed project or a tender launched, only an Environmental Impact Assessment. We told the whole story here.
The construction of the Urban Park where the future Feira Popular would be located was the responsibility of the company Vibeiras S.A.in a contract of more than four million euros, signed on June 27, 2018 and with an execution period of approximately two years.
Odivelas waiting
But the project didn't just involve the Feira Popular and an urban park on the outskirts of Lisbon; it also wanted to give a whole new face and centrality to the Pontinha area, touching on projects on the Odivelas side. Between the two municipalities, two large parking lots with 2,200 spaces were to be created, with a deterrent function and connection to the Pontinha Metro via a pedestrian bridge. At the beginning of 2021, the a preliminary consultation to "preparation of engineering projects" of the north parking lot and its north walkway; at the end of the previous year, the following had been launched a direct agreement to "acquisition of services to adapt the project" of the park and south walkway. Both works will be the responsibility of EMEL.
However, the only piece of equipment that has materialized in this new face of Pontinha is the new Pontinha MarketThe new store, which has been completed, will replace the previous equipment that had been decommissioned. It will include 18 points of sale, distributed among food stalls - meat, fish, vegetables - textiles and other products, in a space of around 340 square meters, which will also have a cafeteria. The roof of the market will be prepared for the installation of a multifunctional playing field.
The space is ready; outside, the cycle path that Lisbon had left at the council's door has been extended by a few more meters, and 18 outdoor parking spaces have been created. Next to the market, a new urban park is to be created, complementing the Feira Popular, in an area that is already densely wooded but closed to the public.
The subject of Lisbon's Feira Popular and its implications for Odivelas returned to the Odivelas Municipal Assembly on July 19th. When questioned by the Left Bloc, the vice-president of the municipality, Edgar Valles, said that he still didn't have an answer for the future of the investments that were planned, but he did say, on related topics, that there will be an expansion of the parking lot in the Senhor Roubado Metro area and that "it's not in the plans of this executive" introducing parking charges in the municipality "in the near future".
On June 1st, 2016, the Odivelas Town Council shared on Facebook "good news" for the municipality: "With the Fair in place, there will be urban regeneration at the entrance to Pontinha, reconfiguration of the road network and an increase in parking spaces, given the construction of a parking lot for 1,500 vehicles". A year later, in 2017The enthusiasm was repeated: "the new Fair will bring more and better benefits to Pontinha for local residents and traders. The project also includes a considerable environmental component that will requalify the Pontinha area with new leisure and recreational spaces, freeing the town from some of its current constraints, creating a new Urban Park and more parking spaces".
The descriptive memoir about the Popular Fair highlighted the following: "The concession area is located in the parish of Carnide, bordering the municipality of Lisbon, but central in its relationship with the neighboring municipalities of Amadora and Odivelas. This dynamic is promoted by the profound changes in the metropolitan road network, in the public transport network - in which the extension of the Metro Blue Line [which has now been completed] stands out - and in the soft mobility networks - with emphasis on the multiple interventions in the cycling network that serves the Pontinha Terminal."
